


Devoured By The Swarm

by Aeshdan



Category: Beast: The Primordial, Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Body Horror, Bugs & Insects, Explicit descriptions of gross and disgusting things, Gen, Taylor is a Beast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 08:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeshdan/pseuds/Aeshdan
Summary: Ever since she can remember, Taylor's dreams have been haunted by the Swarm. Creeping and crawling through her nightmares, always seeking to devour her. But one day that nightmare comes to life, and in the midst of filth and horror, she discovers that she is herself the very thing she has lived her whole life in fear of. No longer need she be afraid. Now, those who tormented her shall learn to fear the Swarm...





	Devoured By The Swarm

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Parahumans Series belongs to Wildbow, and Beast: The Primordial is the creation of White Wolf. Neither is mine.
> 
> WARNING: This is a story where the point-of-view protagonist is a literal incarnation of horror and revulsion. There will be explicit description of gross and disgusting things.

_ They came from everywhere. Tiny skittering black shapes squeezed through every crack and hole in the baseboards, so close-packed they looked liquid in the dim light of the nightlight. Flies and wasps and mosquitoes and she didn't know what else swarmed in through vent and air duct in black clouds, the drone of their wings harmonizing with the click of countless chitinous limbs on the floor. Black specks skittered across the ceiling, angling to get above her. _

_ They were drawing closer now. Creeping things started scale the legs of the bed, while the cloud of flying bugs circled closer and closer and the spiders descended on strands of web. _

_ She screamed… _ and suddenly the bugs were gone, the nightlight once again shining over an empty bedroom, her screams echoing from the walls.

“Taylor?” Emma Barnes rolled over from where she’d been sleeping next to Taylor. Taylor grabbed Emma and held on tight, letting her best friend’s warmth drive away the remnants of the nightmare. 

“Another nightmare?” Emma asked into Taylor’s ear, returning the embrace. Taylor nodded. “Bugs again, or something new?” 

“Bugs,” Taylor whispered. 

“It’s ok,” Emma whispered back. “It was just a dream, that’s all. Just a dream, I promise.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ The swarm flowed up the legs of the bed. Countless bugs flew in and landed on her, biting and stinging. She thrashed and flailed, but no matter how many insects she crushed there were always more, flying down or descending on threads of silk or skittering over and through the covers to cover her, biting and stinging and pinching… _

Taylor snapped awake, panting and covered in sweat, her covers flung from the bed by her thrashing. There were no bugs, and though her skin tingled with phantom bites it was unmarred in the dim light of the nightlight.

Taylor breathed in and out, her racing heart gradually slowing.  _ Just a dream _ , she thought. The bug nightmares were coming more frequently now, or perhaps she was just having an easier time remembering them. They’d been very slowly getting worse as she grew older, but then her life had come crashing down around her. Taylor’s mother had died, her father had retreated so far into himself that Taylor knew him anymore. And just when she was starting to recover from that, Emma had turned on her. Her best friend had, out of nowhere, become her worst enemy, making it her mission to torment her in every way she could imagine. 

And, even as the rest of her life had collapsed, the Swarm had redoubled its assault on her dreams. It was as if her pain drew it, or as if the love of her family and friends had been holding it at bay. 

Eventually, Taylor slipped back into sleep, and thankfully this time there was no nightmare waiting for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a strange day all round. Taylor had dreaded returning to school the entire Christmas break, but the return had been stunningly anticlimatic. Sophia, Emma, and Madison had barely even acknowledged Taylor’s presence all day. There’d been no jibes, no shoves or trips or thefts. The Trio had, by all appearances, simply decided out of the blue to give up their campaign of bullying. Taylor was torn between frantic hope that this state would continue, and a weary waiting for the other shoe to drop.

_ What in the world is that smell? _ Taylor thought as she walked toward her locker.  _ It smells like something crept into a corner and died. Not that that would be that surprising, here. _

The stench got worse as she drew closer to her locker. Holding her nose with one hand, she clumsily turned the combination with the other.

A swarm of flies burst forth, their hairy, pointy legs tearing at her skin as they buzzed everywhere at once. Onto the floor dripped maggots and fetid slime, a thick mix of dark red and black-green chunks. Through the noxious fumes she could make out white objects stained red. And bugs, bugs everywhere. Maggots and other wriggly things burrowing through the mass of slime and filth, flies filling the air with their swarming black shapes and constant drone.

Taylor doubled over, vomiting uncontrollably in intermingled disgust and horror. Her perpetual nightmare, the thing that had haunted her dreams for as long as she could remember, was here in all its terrible glory. The world swam before her, and for a moment she almost could believe that this was only another nightmare, that she was about to wake up.

She was jerked back to the real world when someone grabbed a fistful of her hair. A foot slammed into her back, driving her forward into her locker, into the filth and stench and swarming bugs. The door slammed shut behind her with a clang, and the lock clicked shut. She was trapped in there with the Swarm. She could already feel the stings of pain as the first maggots bit down on her flesh, happy to have a new meal.

Panic drove a primal scream from Taylor’s throat, and she flung herself against the door with every scrap of strength she could wring from her skinny frame, pounding and screaming in pure animal terror. But the steel of the door was stronger than Taylor’s flesh and bone, and that first panicked surge of strength soon faded. The darkness took her,  _ and the swarm was waiting for her. Countless tiny skittering things covered her, biting and pinching and chewing, and for the first time Taylor didn't resist. What was the point? There was no escape, not anymore, not when the Swarm had followed her into the real world. _

_ Taylor felt herself coming apart. Ten thousand tiny jaws chewed at her self, devouring everything that she was or had been, absorbing and digesting thoughts and memories and emotions. In the back of her mind, she felt something snap, a connection jettisoned in haste from the far end as the Swarm took an interest in it. _

_ Soon, it was over. Taylor abandoned the picked-clean bones of the girl she had been, skittering and buzzing off into the darkness. She was the Swarm, and the Swarm was her. _


End file.
